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I first came into contact with Ometz through Concordia University. I was a student studying Human Relations as my major and Human Rights as my minor. In order to graduate, I had to partake in a fieldwork practice experience. In my final year of school, an Ometz employee came into my classroom to talk about the organization. Specifically, she was recruiting someone to come in and implement their fieldwork practice at the Ometz Jr MYP program. The JR MYP afterschool program engages children to succeed by providing them academic and social support. The children are supported by volunteers, who act as mentors over the course of the year. I knew that my partner and I would not only benefit from this because it was within our Jewish community, but we would be able to implement a program that would impact the lives of these children. I am so thankful for this opportunity because it led me to apply to a position within Ometz.
When I got the job as fundraising intern, my title changed to the A Chance to Shine Chair of the Young Adult Committee. Every year, Ometz has an annual gala raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the child services and programs that the organization provides. My employers were very open to starting a new initiative called the Shine Afterparty. We decided to create this initiative in order to engage the 18-30 age cohort of our Jewish community. I started as an intern once a week throughout the year and I got hired as a summer student so that I can work on the party full-time.
Because I was organizing the Afterparty, inevitably my proudest moment was seeing the outcome, on the night of the event. The A Chance to Shine gala was so well put together and the Shine Afterparty was a huge success. There were over 100 guests who attended the Shine Afterparty. I received so much support from the Ometz staff as well as the committee members. I could not have asked for a more fulfilling experience. I knew that the evening would be successful, if I could be confident that one guest felt inspired. The goal of the Afterparty is to create future ambassadors within Ometz and the community. Not only did people feel inspired, but I’ve received an overwhelming response from the attended guests.
Ometz is truly a special organization. What is unique about the organization is that they are open-minded to new programs and opportunities. Ometz will continue to prosper and will only grow to support more members of our community. There is still so much about Ometz that I have yet to learn. Although I will be leaving to Israel for a year to study a Master’s in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, I know that my time at Ometz is not over.

Recently, two staff members from Ometz Supported Employment Services had the opportunity to attend conferences to stay abreast of the new and best practices and in the field of Supported Employment.

Edina Markovitz attended The Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE)’s 20th Annual National Supported Employment Conference in Victoria, whose theme was “Inclusive Employment: The New Workplace Culture”. A few highlights from the informative and skill building sessions included tapping into the potential of persons with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, business community engagement, mentorship and embedding best practices in employment services.

Alyssa Lautman attended the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE)’s 26th Annual National Conference in Philadelphia which brought together 1000 attendees from around the world. Breakout sessions focused on state of the art practices in supported and integrated employment related to the transition from school to work, mental health, autism, organizational change and job development.

To learn more about inclusive hiring practices and how it can impact positively your company, please contact Ometz Supported Employment Services at 514-342-0000 ext 3377 or visit www.ometz.ca

Mark Wafer is an inspirational individual. As a passionate champion for inclusive employment hiring practices, and a member of the Government of Canada’s 2012 panel “Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities,” Mr. Wafer spends considerable time traveling and lecturing to educate and dispel the myths that hiring people with disabilities is difficult or problematic.

On April 16th, 2015, Atelier JEM Workshop Inc. together with Ometz and Federation CJA’s YAD leadership program had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Wafer at the Workshop for a tour of the facilities. During the tour, Mr. Wafer reported being impressed that the employees of Atelier JEM Workshop Inc. are paid, hourly workers who also benefit from on-site psychosocial support and cultural activities.

Mr. Wafer has personal and professional experience with employment and disability. Born with only 20% hearing Mr. Wafer was faced with his own challenges growing up. As the current owner of six Tim Horton’s franchises in Toronto, Mr. Wafer leads by example, ensuring that his restaurants utilize inclusive hiring practices. He has hired 112 people with all types of disabilities in the past 20 years from entry-level to logistics, production and management. He currently has 225 employees, 46 of whom have a disability.

During his visit, he shared much about the compelling “business case” of hiring people with disabilities, including increased company loyalty, reduced turnover and increased employee productivity.

The Government of Canada’s report “Rethinking DisAbility in the Private Sector” that Mr. Wafer was involved in, cited that there are approximately 795,000 disabled, working-aged Canadians who are not working but whose disability does not prevent them from doing so. As our population ages, and disability rates increase, we cannot afford to exclude this pool of working-age adults from the labour force.

The report states that one of the key factors for successful hiring strategy of people with disabilities is for employers to find the right community partners, especially organizations with a specialized service in employment for people with disabilities. Funded by Emploi Quebec, Ometz Supported Employment Services does just that.

To learn more about inclusive hiring practices and how it can impact positively your company, please contact Ometz Supported Employment Services at 514-342-0000 ext 3377 or visit www.ometz.ca

Perhaps the most exciting part of our work at Ometz is watching the successes of our clients, whether big or small. Because we offer so many programs between our employment, immigration, school services and social services, often success means different things at different times – the courage for a new immigrant to prepare and attend a job interview in a new language; the ‘AHA’ moment when a student ‘gets’ what her tutor has been showing her for so long; or the abused wife who seeks protection for herself and her children.

Sound dramatic? Well sometimes it is, and sometimes it looks like one of the testimonials featured in this newsletter.

As a new immigrant from the Former Soviet Union, Rimma Zelfand, and her husband, accessed our employment services. That was the start of a wonderful career for Rimma who is today the CEO of a sister agency, Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF&CS) of Greater Boston. Their mission, like ours, is to improve people’s lives and help the vulnerable. She regards our intervention at a crucial point in her life as part of what set her upon a path that allowed her to enjoy a very successful career, and the opportunity to give back to her community. That’s what we call success!

But we need your support to help us help our clients change their lives and here is how:

In this newsletter we announce our upcoming annual gala event of A Chance to Shine. It will be held at Place des Arts on May 27, 2015 and will feature a troupe of incredible child circus performers known as Le PeTiT CiRque an all-kid circus act from Los Angeles. Once again Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Black will act as the patrons of this event, thus enabling us to direct all funds raised that evening to programming for our youth and young adults at risk, ensuring that we can help them succeed, regardless of their challenge. We hope you’ll join us and help give our kids a chance to shine!

Even as we approach Rosh Hashanah, we are still basking in the glow of our recent Annual General Meeting which brought a close to the celebration of our 150th anniversary year. We look forward to the future with confidence and hope. Why? Because over the years we have proven ourselves to be a nimble and responsive organization. Because over the years we have worked hard at relationship building, at forming alliances and at establishing new collaborations. Because all these years later we enjoy a network of partners, with whom we are deeply invested. We have developed significant partnerships with close to 500 volunteers, with a highly engaged Board of Directors, with 110 devoted staff members and with numerous individual donors, government agencies, private foundations, and public and private institutions. And together we have had an impact on thousands and thousands of lives every year!

And with an eye towards future partners and friends, we have launched a new fundraising program aimed at teaching our kids about philanthropy via a website called ECHOage. This is an online site that was conceived for kids’ birthday parties. The child selects a registered charity and donates 50% of his/her gifts to that charity. It is simple, effective and educational. Ometz is one of the listed charities. What a terrific way to teach our kids early on what our community leaders understood instinctively 150 years ago!

2014 has already set in and with it most of us have made some heartfelt resolutions that we plan to keep…only this time we really meant it!

Well Ometz is really no different! We are a group of people who want to help and we really mean it too!

Year in, year out we try to help our fellow community members who may need assistance settling in Montreal, finding work, adapting to a family crisis or living with the challenges of school, of bereavement, of divorce, of poverty or of mental illness in a family. These are real, daily and daunting challenges but our resolution is to offer the best possible services we can to support our clients and help them become more resilient.

At Ometz we have made a promise to our clients – to deliver accessible, personalized, and culturally-sensitive human services, founded on Jewish values, and to be responsive, compassionate, engaged, innovative and inspiring. We try to deliver on that promise every day.

We cannot do this alone and in truth we are not alone. As they say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – and our parts include a Board of 15 passionate volunteers; a staff of 100 devoted professionals; and close to 400 volunteers who mentor, tutor, drive, deliver, source out donors for missing items for needy clients and generally make themselves available for whatever needs to be done.

So how are we doing? Here is a note that we received just before the holidays.

From Josh

“Finding a job would have been nearly impossible without the help of Ometz. Its Employment counselors do a lot more than simply find jobs for people. They help develop communities as well as assure that communities remain intact and strong. I can go on for hours recounting countless stories about cousins, friends or various other individuals who had to take their families elsewhere. For many people, patience is a word that is hard to understand. Ometz helps people understand the importance of that word …. “

While it’s nice to get this feedback, it is the knowledge that we can make a difference that inspires us to re-dedicate ourselves anew each year. Our resolution to you and all who may seek our help, is to fulfill our promises and to strive to better our services in every way we can.

Happy New Year – may it bring good health and a sense of fulfillment for us all.

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About Ometz

Ometz is a non-profit human services agency that supports and strengthens individuals and families by offering employment, immigration and social services. Ometz was created in April 2008 from the merger of Jewish Employment Montreal (JEM), Jewish Family Services (JFS) and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS).